Rupert Murdoch has launched an attack on Facebook after it was revealed that it had overtaken MySpace as the most popular social network.

According to figures from ComScore, Facebook received 123.9 million unique visitors in May compared to MySpace's 114.6 million.

It was revealed that Facebook had grown by 162 per cent year on year, compared to a growth of just five per cent for MySpace.

The owner of NewsCorp, who bought the social networking site in 2005 for $580 million, said that Facebook had "done a great job of being flavor of the month in the last six years of last month".

MySpace is to begin venturing away from the computer by distributing content on TV and DVD and selling merchandise.

The social network site, owned by News Corp has struck a deal with ShineReveille, a company founded by Rupert Murdoch's daughter.

Exclusive content which MySpace TV co-produces with media companies, such as Roommates and hidden-camera show Special Delivery, will make the company a media platform distinguishing it from its rival Facebook, according to the company.

MySpace is hoping to challenge Apple's iTunes music store with its new MySpace Music site.

The social network site has formed a joint venture with three of the four major recording labels.

Universal, Sony BMG and Warner Music have all signed up to help launch MySpace Music.

The site will be embedded in the social network and offer free audio and video streaming together with paid-for MP3 downloads, ringtones and ticket sales.

Yahoo!, Google and MySpace have formed an alliance to form the OpenSocial network to lure web developers away from the market leader Facebook.

The OpenSocial network is a set of technical specifications that lets new software run on any social network website.

Joe Krauss, Google director of product management, said to Reuters that the scope of OpenSocial applications could reach more than 200 million users.

Speaking about the coalition he added: "If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together."

MySpace is collaborating with some of the biggest music labels to launch a digital music platform.

The social networking site is close to deals with Warner Music Group and Sony BMG, according to the New York Post.

No money will be involved in the deal as the labels are trading content rights in exchange for stakes in MySpace Music and any advertising revenue they generate from the service.

One industry insider told the NY Post: "The concept of the joint venture is to bring in all forms of making money from digital music and much more tightly integrate them."

A bug in the ActiveX controls used on popular social networking sites Facebook and MySpace could be used by hackers to gain control of Windows-based PCs.

The flaw was initially made public by researcher Elazar Broad, who revealed the glitch on the Full Disclosure security mailing list.

He explained that the bugs are present in the pair of ActiveX controls used by Facebook and MySpace to let users upload photos.

Social networking site MySpace is set to allow third-party groups to develop games, media-sharing features and other programs.

Reports suggest that the News Corporation-owned website will officially reveal the development tools next week.

It is thought that the company decided to allow third-party development in a bid to maintain ahead of rival Facebook, which was opened up to these new programs last year.

The company said that the new MySpace Developer Platform will mean that users are offered exciting new ways to connect and communicate.

Popular social networking site MySpace has said that it will implement a host of new security measures to increase the safety of teens online.

The new measures to guard against sexual predators are part of an agreement that state regulators and attorneys general have hailed as a possible model for the emerging industry.

Under the new plans, parents will be able to bar their children from the site and a new system will be put in place to prevent older users from seeing the profiles of children.

Reports have emerged that hackers have set up a fake MySpace profile which could be used to deliver malware to consumer's computers.

Security experts at McAfee reported that they found a profile on the popular social networking site which was trying to trick users into downloading a malicious Trojan House programme.

The cyber criminals had discussed the malware as a Microsoft update, the company added.

The mayor of a town in Oregon has faced calls to resign after it emerged that her MySpace page featured pictures of her in only her underwear.